Milan Fashion Week Men's: Cifonelli

Cifonelli is a Parisian house of two halves, each of which
empowers the other. Naturally, cousins Lorenzo and Massimo are the
visionaries that oversee the house’s bespoke operations, and who
have between them built the house’s bespoke atelier into one of the
finest in the world. Of course, they also preside over the
remarkable Cifonelli house style, with its iconic sculpted
shoulders, trim chest, short skirt and refined silhouette. When it
comes to translating the house’s bespoke masterpieces into
ready-to-wear though, they call upon another menswear powerhouse,
John Vizzone. The house’s Creative Director and ready-to-wear
designer, Vizzone has over the past several seasons
transformed Cifonelli into one of the most sophisticated
ready-to-wear brands in Europe, offering extraordinary tailored
designs and intelligent collections which bridge all the component
parts of the successful, stylish man’s life.

The last two seasons in particular have offered a masterful
richness of colour and pattern, complimentary textures and tone,
presenting collections which envisage the Cifonelli man as a
modern-day aristocrat with a confident yet refined understanding of
men’s dress and an almost impossibly glamorous lifestyle. Vizzone
has also refined the house’s ready-to-wear tailoring to the point
where you’ll be hard pressed to tell a ready-to-wear Cifonelli
shoulder from the bespoke – quite some feat. Even so, one can’t
help but sense that Vizzone has just got started, and certainly if
our exclusive interview with him is anything to go by, the
Cifonelli presentation to come this morning is going to be
something of a sartorial knock-out.

What can we expect to see in
your AW’17 collection?

We're trying to move our vision of
the Cifonelli man as a paragon of luxury forward again this season,
so you'll see design that is rich and sartorial, yet tasteful.
There are bold Prince-of-Wales plaids, there's plaid-on-plaid,
luxurious mink fur collars on our overcoats, and we're
experimenting with an ever so slightly elongated silhouette. The
palette ranges across biscuit, camel and chocolate brown with
touches of charcoal grey. We've also worked on a shooting cape and
on some utilitarian outerwear pieces produced in super-lux
fabrications.

What element of the collection
are you most proud of and why?

Taking vintage elements of Edwardian
dress and reinterpreting them for a modern gentlemen; the shooting
clothes, strong three-piece suits, the dressy details are all
inspired by the richness of the Edwardian tastemaker's
wardrobe.

Have you incorporated any new
fabrics, sourced from any new mills or merchants,
etc.?

Interestingly, this season we have
introduced some clever cloths from English mills (we have
previously worked primarily with Italian mills) which are
distinctly old-school but which channel that sense of traditional
glamour I wanted to achieve.

How would you describe the
collection’s aesthetic?

It's a modern interpretation of
vintage prints and fashion plates.

What has been your main source of
inspiration and why?

My main inspiration (quite apart
from the collection's Edwardian quality) is the profusion of
patterns on patterns, done in a way that stimulating and
intriguing to wear. Experimenting with pattern is important, rather
than wearing it in the same way from season to season.

Who is the Cifonelli
man?

The Cifonelli man is a glamorous,
sexy ,modern-day prince; a contemporary aristocrat with
taste.